I think it's always interesting how the last thing you read or the last thing you hear as you're falling asleep can have such a strong impact on what you dream about. Of course, the night before I was on TvTropes, looking at the entry for Dark City which may explain why my dream this morning was so disturbing. Before I get to the dream, I thought I'd talk a bit about the movie. I only saw it once ages ago and remember liking it and still recalling some of the plot. What I didn't know then and didn't find out until I started reading the tropes page and some reviews is that Dark City actually came out a year before The Matrix, with whom it shares a very similar theme. If anything, Dark City's even more disturbing than The Matrix since at least in the latter you're still you, despite the completely artificial environment. In Dark City, even your memories and personality are created for you and implanted in your head without your consent.

While critics apparently loved the flick, it never became the boxoffice success of its little brother. I personally put the blame for that on not enough dakka. If you ask anyone about the Matrix, the scenes they'll probably describe to you involve a torrent of bullets and shit blowing up. Dark City was more psychological which is probably great for the film student sect, but not for the mass public as a whole. Reading about the movie again re-sparked my interest and so I snagged a copy and will probably get to watching it at some point.

So thoughts on super powers and hoards of dark shadowy figures in pursuit basically caused me to dream a very disturbing dream in which I had super powers. That no doubt seems like win all around, but my dream seemed to investigate the darker side of it. It almost became a parable featuring 'what a tangled web we weave' except instead of lying it was about using your abilities. Each use sparked a further use to fix or cover up the previous and on it rolled downhill becoming more and more unwieldy. Add to the fact that there were actually some menacing boogaboos around and I felt like I was dreaming a hollywood movie.

Things weren't all that much better upon waking. Drove around, threw up a ridiculous amount of stomach acid, went back to bed. Maybe I'll read up on a couple rom-coms before going to bed tonight and see if my luck is any better.